Athena's Champion (up for adoption)
by Dr. ForgottenFables
Summary: To think that not even death or three thousand years could get rid of an oath sworn to a goddess. When Danny ends up trapped in the opening ghost portal, he is bathed in the power of the River Styx and inherits the soul of Achilles and all his responsibilities to his goddess. Understandable to a degree, but honestly why does he get stuck with babysitting duty?
1. Prologue

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

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The world seemed to fall silent. The warring cries of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers that had been laying siege to the great city of Troy had died as the clash of the two champions of the opposing armies was brought to an end. With one final stroke, the polished bronze sword of Achilles found the opening between breastplate and helm and Memnon's head spun through the air before the body slide to the ground, the metal armor ringing as the body hit the ground.

That should have been it. The hero of Troy was no more, and Achilles stood tall, the symbol of Athena shining in the middle of his fabled shield surrounded by the twelve symbols of the zodiac. The war that had been set up back the divided gods to be played out by men should have stopped, the victors declared in the heavens.

Only Achilles was not satisfied. His rage had yet to die. Though the battle had been won, he had lost two of his dearest friends; Patroclus and Nestor. So standing in the middle of the battlefield, in the sight of men and gods alike, Achilles, son of Thetis and hero of Athena called out a challenge.

"Ye gods who sought to split the heavens! I have killed your last champion! Your attempts to use mortal men to further yourselves has fallen, but you have not been the ones to pay the price! Come down here, so that I may show ye the true taste of steel!" Achilles roared, daring the rebelling gods. Everyone who could hear him believed he was mad, a mortal man, challenging the divine.

Achilles stood their, a legend in the making, his blood hair hair waving in a wind that couldn't be felt, his eyes burning with the bright green fire of the divine, his entire body seemed to glow with power that couldn't stand the existence of an equal. It was easy to understand why some believe him to have cast aside him mortality, that he was an immortal himself, beyond a simple demigod.

Heat and light burned in the sky, blinding all who stood on the battlefield as the sun seemed to descend from the heavens, the first to take up the prideful man's challenge. A bolt of heavenly power flying down towards the insolent man to strike him down.

But Achilles was not blinded, he spun his shield around, deflecting the arrow out if the air, causing it to rebound upon the earth where it carved a long trail into the ground. Achilles' bright green eyes looked up into the fire of the sun, seeing through the light and too the shining bronze armor that glowed with the fire of the sun itself.

Apollo had come down from the heavens on his chariot, bringing with him the unmistakable power of a god, a pressure so vast that lesser men could not even comprehend his presence.

"You surprise me, Apollo. I had believed that Ares would have come upon my challenging." Achilles said as his eyes followed the usually blinding light as it circled around him, another arrow being notched to the god's golden bow. "I suppose I will need to defeat the weakest of my opposition before Ares or Poseidon grace the field." Achilles said, insulting the god of the sun as he deflected the second arrow and a third.

"You forget yourself son of Thetis! You are but a mortal, meant to sever the gods!" Apollo's voice echoed through the air as his golden chariot circled about the battle.

Achilles sheathed his sword before flicking up Memnon's discarded spear with his foot, catching it in his hand. "No! It is you who has forgotten your loyalties! I serve Athena, and her father, the King of the Gods in turn! You have forgotten who it is who rulers you, and I will remind you of your place!"

The spear came alive with bright green light as Achilles infused it with the power of the Aether, the light of immortality, and through it at the rogue god with such speed that the air cracked as if it had been a bolt of Zeus's lightning that had been thrown. The spear of green light soared through the sky, catching the god on the shield and throwing him from his chariot which ran back off into the sky as the god fell to the Earth below, landing on his feet and kicking up a mountain of dust.

Apollo was made to discard his bow as the warrior hero rushed him, the light of Aether surrounding him like a blanket of his own immortal power to face against the god's. Short swords clashed, sending tremors through the air as the two preformed a battle that could neither been seen or understood by the mortal on looks as the veil covered the air to protect the mortal minds for the effects of seeing magic.

But the battle did have onlookers. Up in the heavens Athena and Artemis watched the battle between the god of the sun and the near immortal hero.

"I don't now which one of them is more foolish, my idiot brother for giving into the challenge, or that boar of a hero for giving it." Artemis scoffed. The goddess took the form a a small child, even though she was older than her twin by a few minutes. Her short black hair framed a pale face that could win nearly man's heart, which would cost the fool who looked on it his life. "Win or lose, they will be punished for disrupting the order for their little battle, one that does not even serve a purpose."

"That maybe, but they will still fight. That is the nature of warring men, they won't stop until they prove who is stronger." Athena said with a smile. Athena's gray eyes never left the battle, seeing ever single move that the two fighters made. "Though your brother believes he has nothing to fear from my champion. He is greatly mistaken."

Artemis frowned. "Even if he has been granted the light of immortality from his contact with the River Styx, I would hardly say he is a match for a true god." Artemis said looking down at the man with disgust clear in her face. "I still cannot believe that you would call such a filthy mortal your champion. He does not embody wisdom in battle, he is a raging animal. One of the most disgusting and sinful of his kind."

"I know." Athena said with a chuckle that caught her half sister by surprise. "I know, and so does he. Which is why he fights in my name. He wishes for my wisdom to guide him so that he doesn't cause pointless destruction like he would have underneath Ares's rule." Athena looked over to Artemis and giggled at the expression on the young face. "You really hate him don't you?"

Artemis turned away. "All men are animals. And men who make love to other men are even worse." The moon goddess said, earning a long laugh from the war goddess.

Meanwhile, back on the Trojan battle field, the god and the demigod continued to fight, each unwilling to stop. Achilles short sword flashed through the air, covered in the green fire that was fueled by the power of the Aether, the vary nature of light and the air that the gods breathed. It was through this power that Achilles stood on equal footing with the god of the sun, deflecting any slash with his shield before striking out with his sword to press the god back.

Apollo may have been skilled with a bow, but in a close quarters fight against the talented young warrior, his failings with a sword were becoming more and more obvious. Scratches appeared on the gods shining bronze and gold armor as attack after attack got through his attempts to parry.

Then as Achilles pushed forward in a shield bash maneuver, Apollo vanished in a flash of light to reappear behind the hero, swinging down his sword in an attempt to take the man's head. But Achilles turned, his sword parrying the blow before he swung his shield around with all his strength, its edge glowed green as it caught the god in the helmet, splitting the helmet open and sending the god tumbling through the air.

Apollo rolled up from the ground, clutching at his face, a long scar covering it from the bridge of his nose to the end of his cheek bone. The god looked up at the hero, his expression a mixture of indignation and terror. Flakes of golden dust glittered around the wound instead of blood.

It must have been the first time the god had ever been injured. After all, no mere mortal had the power needed to strike out at him, and the other gods would be held back by the power of divine law. Apollo was too young to remember the war between the gods and the titans. So he had no experience of true war. A war where your vary being was at risk.

"What is the matter, Lord Apollo?" Achilles said sarcastically, grip tightening on his sword. "Do you fear death? You had no problem sending hundreds of mortals to their ends? So why should you shy away from this final night?"

"You are an abomination. You wield the breath of the gods against us as a weapon, and you are unbounded by the divine laws. You are dangerous to the order of the world. Why does Athena allow you to still exist?" Apollo spat angrily, though he seemed to be in no hurry to try to attack Achilles again, backing away from the not quiet mortal hero.

"You are forgetting where the Aether comes from. It is a product of Nyx and of Chaos. The very air you breath is part of the nature of disorder. So I am only using it for its natural purpose." Achilles said with a glare. He went down into a stance, clearly ready to rush the god again.

But before he could, a sharp pain moved through his back. The hero gasped as something managed to piece through his armor from behind him. But he had not sensed any divine being in that direction. A hand went down to his chest to feel the head of an arrow sticking through him, before coming away, covered in blood.

Achilles turned as his life started to find away to see the must unlikely sight. Paris, the bastard prince who started this war, standing a few hundred yards away. The tiny man was shivering with fright under Achilles' stare, clutching the golden bow of Apollo in his hand.

Even in the hands of a complete novice, an arrow fired from Apollo's bow would fly true. Achilles had been shot through the heart, and as time slowed down Achilles fell to the ground, his part in history over. Died before he could exact his vengeance on the rebelling gods.

But for some reason, his soul never made it to Hades. His spirit never found rest. Instead it returned to River Styx where his power had first came from. The old Titaness brought in his spirit and held onto it, not letting it through to the after life. Cursing him to remain there, until the gods broke an oath placed on the sacred river.

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 **Another story I threatened to make a long time ago. Or at least a challenge where Danny is the reincarnation of Achilles and has to uphold the oath to Athena who sends him to look over Annabeth while the girl is running away from home.**


	2. Intro

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

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A young boy with midnight hair and blue eyes sat in silence in the office of his newest therapist. He was trying his hardest to ignore what she was saying, instead paying attention to her body language out of the corner of his eye as he scanned the office. A surprisingly empty office, containing only the standard furnishing and a pot of some kind of incense. Not a good sign.

"Danny Fenton, age fifteen. Expelled from two schools in the last year." The woman said. Danny had already forgotten her name. No point wasting brain cells on it. She had bright red hair and emerald eyes. Her overly cheerful voice made him want to gag. "It says here that you had no problems at all, up until a year ago when you suddenly tried to convince your instructors that you had forgotten how to read after an accident. Afterward your behavior became worse and worse." The woman said before looking up from her clip board at the boy who wasn't paying any attention. "Several cases of arsine, and assault followed. You started to skip classes, didn't do your homework, and stopped coming home at nights. I see here several reports of self harm. Was this your cry for help? An attempt to try to get what you needed by lying to everyone around you?" The woman leaned forward. "But we both now that was all it was. You are just a worthless little boy who is try to do whatever he can to get out of his sister's shadow. To make up for the fact that he has no friends and is doomed to be a freak forever."

After a few seconds the boy sighed. "Can we just cut the crap and get this over with? You're the second fake therapist this month. The effect has kind of been devalued." The boy said looking up at the woman with a face that screamed an annoyed sort of angry. "I already took out your fat friend out back. So lets just get this over with so I can go."

At first it didn't look like the woman would react at all to what the boy said, but then an odd thing happened. Something that no outsider would be able to understand. The woman's face began to change, twisting in on itself as flakes of skin fell away to reveal a black mass of some kind. The woman's clothes were falling away to reveal a long slender body that was dark as a shadow, and the head exploded outwards to show a head made of dark feelers and several sharp teeth underneath a pair of dark red eyes.

The creature screamed and was going to lung forward, but it was already too late. The boy had moved in, his right hand bursting into bright green light as he drove it through the monsters chest. The creature froze in the air, eyes widening before exploding into golden dust that disappeared before it even reached the ground.

Danny Fenton didn't even bat an eyebrow as he stood up in the middle of the office, looking into a mirror to see his own face, the face that no other human seemed able to see. Hair white as snow and eyes that glowed with a dark green fire.

"Guess the section is over. Good thing it was pay after instead of prepay." Danny said as he opened the door to the room and walked out.

The world shimmered behind him as the names on the plaques changed and history was rewritten. By the time Danny had gotten out of the building, no one even remembered that the woman had ever even existed in the first place.

He realized that he wouldn't have a ride for two more hours, so he just stuck his hands in his pockets and started on his way home.

He didn't understand why, but this had been his existence for the last year. Ever since the accident in his parents basement. They had been trying to build a portal into the afterlife, as odd as that sounded, and Danny had been caught in the middle of it when it had opened.

Ever since then he had been being attacked by monsters. He didn't know what they were, or where they came from. No one else ever seemed able to see them, though the damage they did was quiet real. People kept getting hurt, and property kept getting damaged, and it always seemed that Danny would be the one to take the blame.

No one believed him about the monsters. Everyone thought he was crazy, other than Sam and Tucker, his best friends from his old school before he was expelled. Though even they couldn't see what was going on until he openly pointed it out to them.

He mostly only talked to them online these days, playing video games with them when he could. They invited him over from time to time, but he always made up excuses why he couldn't go. He didn't want them to be in harms way if the monsters attacked him.

At first it was just one or two monsters every few days, but then it became a three or four times a day deal. He couldn't cross the street without some beast disguised as a house cat going for his throat.

Sam had asked him how he had known he wasn't just going crazy. The answer was, he didn't, but when the monsters came, he had no time to worry about whether or not he was crazy. The only options were to kill them or be killed. That was the thing that had kept the boy going this entire time, the psychological need to survive at all costs.

He didn't go home. Home was not exactly a good place for him. His parents always worried and yelling and his sister trying to figure how what was mentally wrong with him. Not to mention the kinds of damages he had to deal with when a monster attacked his house. So instead he gravitated towards the city park. At least there he would have plenty of room to move, and as long as the entire place didn't catch fire, no one cared much if there were damages.

As he sat down against the tree, he pulled out a harmonical. His older sister had suggested it as something for him to practice focusing on in order to hopefully stop his schizophrenic actions. As insulting as it was, he had learned it anyways. It gave him something to do when he was alone. And he was so often alone.

He closed his eyes and began to play. He hadn't ever received any actual lessons, so he wasn't all that great, but he could play simple tones. Sad little songs for a world that was so cold to him.

But as he played something caught his attention. A smell. A cold metallic scent that held a bit of the smell of the ocean in it. Danny opened his eyes and turned his head towards the smell.

Sure enough, a scaly creature hopped out of the water, its webbed hands and feet scrabbling on the rocks before it gained its balance. The creature was slightly bigger than a good sized dog and its sea green scales seemed out of place as the light hit them. It was some kind of cross between a toad, a fish and a dog. It seemed to sniff the air before turning and hopping towards Danny.

Danny could only sigh with irritation. This creature wasn't large enough to be a threat to him. But that wouldn't stop it from trying. It was as if these monsters had no self preservation instincts at all. If it could smell him, then surely it could smell the multitude of its kind's blood that stained his hands.

He moved towards it, putting his harmonica back in his pocket as he readied himself. The creature stopped and look at Danny with its huge eyes before baring its teeth. "Lets get this over with." Danny said lazily.

The creature open its mouth and a long tongue snapped out, so fast that a human eye would have hardly been able to perceive it, but Danny simple stepped to the side before grabbing the tongue and giving it a hard pull. The beast flew through the air towards him and Danny let go of the creature tongue so that he could grabbed the monster's jaws, one in each hand. Then, using strength that was beyond human power, he ripped the creature in half, before letting go as it disappeared in a puff of golden dust, leaving nothing but a bracelet made of its scales behind to show that it had ever been there.

Danny bent over and picked it up. Another useless trophy of his battles. But it was pretty enough, and had a dark shine to it. Maybe he could give it to Sam for her birthday. The goth girl seemed to have a liking for the item drops of these monsters. He enjoyed seeing her smile at the small treasures, knowing that she hardly let anyone see those smiles.

Though those thoughts were brought to an end as Danny heard someone clapping behind him.

He spun around, dropping into a stance in order to be prepared for an attack. He wasn't used to anyone being able to come up behind him.

Standing on the top of a hill, over looking the small stream was a woman in her early twenties with golden blond hair and striking grey eyes that were easy to see, even at a distance. She had a small smile on her face as she slowly clapped. "As brutal as ever I see." She said, her voice ringing through the air. "I am glad to find that you have finally returned, Achilles. Now I have a job for you."

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 **As far as Achilles being gay, it was a popular belief in most writings about him that he was bisexual. He did have a wife and child, but he was a lover of some of his men. When you are out at war, you don't have that many women around, at it was a lot more acceptable at the time. Though I can imagine Artemis would not approve of bisexuals.**

 **Anyways, this is Danny's intro. No ghosts, just monsters, though some of the ghosts will be presented as monsters. The Fenton portal will be a path to the River Styx, but if you remember, that leads to Hades. Not sure if that will come up in this story though.**

 **And to the person who had the announces tag name of Null, I didn't read your message until after I posted this. But you really should become a writer here if you can find the time. You already show twice as must creativity as most of the people here.**


	3. Chapter 1: Athena's daughter

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

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"Okay, so maybe running away from home wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done." Annabeth mumbled with a shiver as she huddled as close to an overhanging oak tree as she could. Rain poured down in sheets making it impossible for her to see more than a few feet. The girl was cold, wet, hungry and tired. But more than that, she was scared. "So much for a daughter of Athena always having a plan."

Annabeth had had a plan when everything started just the morning before. The plan had been to get away from her neglectful father and her horrible step mother and step siblings. Her step mother had always blamed everything on Annabeth and the array of monsters the little girl attracted. Even at the age of seven, Annabeth had already been the target of a few of the smaller monsters. And her step mother had hated her for it, not wanting her to be anywhere near her perfectly normal children. Her father had gone along with the woman, doing as she wanted, leaving Annabeth to fend for herself.

Finally it had been to much, and the girl had ran away from home. She had packed her celestial bronze dagger and enough food and clothes to get her by for a few days and started to head east, believing she could find her mother and that everything would be better.

Unfortunately, almost the minute she had left town, she had found out just how small the monsters she had dealt with so far were as a monsters two headed dog with a serpents tail knocked the bus she had gone on off the road in an attempt to attack her. She was forced to run for her life into the forest.

Later a giant golden eagle had ripped her bag to pieces and had almost taken her head. She had only managed to escape my jumping into a stream, and even that had almost cost her when a water serpent had tried to squeeze the life out of her, she barely managed to pull her blade on it in time to save her own life.

"Please Zeus. I've had a bad day. Can you please just let up on the rain." The seven year old cried as she huddled in her little niche. Her blond locks of hair were matted together into a mess and she could hardly keep her eyes open as exhaustion pressed in. But this was no place to sleep. She knew that. She knew that if she didn't get out of these clothes that she could get sick. She knew that monsters could find her and she would be defenseless if she was asleep.

She knew all of these things. But she was still only a little girl. She couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. "Mommy. Please." She whimpered weakly as her grey eyes started to close.

Sadly, it wasn't her mother who had hear the girl. Annabeth's eyes flew open as she felt several pin pricks on her legs. Slight weights that were more than could be explained my the splatter of the rain that was pushed into her half hearted shelter.

The girl let out a shrill scream. Spiders. Dozens of spiders the size of baseball gloves were crawling all over her. She tried to kick out at them, but webbing bounded her legs, holding them still at her sides no matter how hard she tried to struggle. The spiders were working their way up her legs, spinning webs as they went.

Annabeth reached for her dagger, but it was held in its sheath by a strong piece of webbing. She was helpless.

The monster spiders wrapped her up completely and then they started to drag her out into the rain, pulling her away. Annabeth was having a panic attack. She had always been afraid of spiders, and they had always seemed to hate her. It was supposed to be because Athena had cursed the very first spider, Arachno, and all her descendents hated the war goddess for it. The creatures were surely going to kill her.

Annabeth was dragged into a rock cave a little ways up the stream she had pulled herself out of earlier that day. The entire place was covered in webs, and spiders were crawling everywhere, earning at whimper from the poor girl.

After they had dragged her into the middle of the cave, the spiders let go of their threads and scattered. Annabeth's heart was pounding in her ears as she saw an even more gigantic spider slowly descending from the room above her on a single thread the width of a human arm. The spider's body was as big as a car, each of its legs was at least twelve feet long and covered in long black hairs that made Annabeth's hairs stand on end.

The spider started for her. "Child of the cursed goddess." It's voice was something like a cat's hiss as its eight eyes focused on the little girl. The creatures entire body was trembling with hatred as it approached the helpless child. Finally it bounded towards her with its full weight behind it, its large fangs, dripping with poison were posed to be driven deep into Annabeth's body.

Annabeth gave out a scream and she pulled her eyes shut, believing that this was how it was all going to end.

But instead of feeling the sharp fangs being plunged into her body, she felt herself being lifted off the ground and moved away at such a speed to make the air whistle past her ears.

Opening her eyes, she found herself looking up at a boy who must have been twice her age, holding her in his arms. His hair was pure white and he had dark green eyes that didn't seem human. "Honestly, attacking a little girl? I will never understand how you monsters think." The boy said, his tone was cocky, even bored. Annabeth's jaw hung open, unable to think of anything to say as he lowered her to the ground and turned to face the army of spiders. "Lets get this over with."

He swung out his right arm which seemed to have a strange black glove of some kind. It was fingerless and went up to his elbow, but it was only on one arm, making it look out of place.

Beautiful green flames erupted from his hand and jumped onto the nearby webbing, moving quickly along its surface, burning all of the spiders it came across, leaving them screaming in pain as they burned to death, leaving nothing but puffs of gold dust in their places.

The mother spider, Arachno, screamed in rage as its children were being burned in the emerald flames. It throw itself at the boy, trying to bite down into him.

Annabeth watched in surprise when rather than dodging out of the way, the boy took several quick steps forward before throwing up his right hand, punching the giant spider in the center of its body, his hand sinking in to its stomach as its body collapsed over him.

For a few seconds, Annabeth couldn't see the boy, and had believed he was crushed, but then the spider's whole body split in half revealing the white haired boy standing their with a black and bronze shield held over his head on his right arm where the strange glove had been.

As he turned toward the seven year old girl, the room filled with the green light of the flames behind him and the body of the spider disappearing into golden dust, Annabeth felt herself becoming light headed. As the fear and exhaustion from the day took over and her adrenalin started to run out, her eyes slide close one more time, and she was back to sleep.

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Annabeth couldn't tell how long she had been out, but when she finally woke up again, she was still in the cave, and there was a flickering log fire in front of her, its warm a welcome feeling on her face, even if her body was still wet from the rain. A smell was in the air, one that was clearly some kind of food, even if she didn't recognize the scent. It reminded her of just how hungry she was.

She sat up, finding that the bonds that had been on her were gone and started to look around.

"So you finally woke up." Annabeth's head spun to her right in order to see a boy with black hair sitting by the fire, poking at it with a stick. But when she blinked she realized it was the white haired boy, and that the mist was trying to hide his true appearance now that the battle was over.

"Stay back!" Annabeth shouted, pulling away from the boy and fumbling for her dagger.

The boy just turned to her, not seeming to mind the dagger she was pointing at him. "Is that how you act towards someone who saved your life?" He said, his voice a little cold. Annabeth winced guiltily, but then was surprised when the boy added. "Good. You'll live longer that way. Don't trust anyone, its a good policy to have." He said before turning back to the fire. Now that Annabeth was awake, she could see a sort of metal pot on top of it that was filled with what looked like bean and some kind of vegetables. The smell wasn't appealing, Annabeth was hungry enough to eat anything. "Here, put this on." The boy said, holding out a beautiful silk dress to Annabeth.

"I... I'm not going to change in front of you." Annabeth said embarrassed.

"I'll look away if you want, but you need to get out of those clothes before you catch your death." He said with a glare, shaking the dress in front of Annabeth. Annabeth's eyes found his glove and she saw the design on the back of it; her mother's owl, surrounded by the twelve symbols of the zodiac. Was this boy connected to her mother? Maybe even a half brother of hers?

Annabeth paused for a few seconds before a shiver convinced her. So putting her dagger away, she took the dress, and after making sure that the boy wasn't looking she started to put it on. She was surprised to find how perfectly it fit her. It was an amazing piece of work, with several intricate designs and colors that seemed to be too natural for any dye.

"Why do you have a dress for a little girl on you?" Annabeth asked, wondering if the boy was a creeper.

"I didn't. The giant spider dropped it after I cut it in half." The boy said, not looking at Annabeth in case she was still dressing.

Annabeth's jaw dropped. "This is a work of Arachno!? I can't wear this! It would be an insult to my mother!" Annabeth shouted in a panic.

"Well tough, princess! Because until your clothes dry it's all we got! So if Athena has a problem with it, she can just direct her complaints to the office of people who give a shit!" The boy spat angrily, clearly having enough of Annabeth's talking. The small girl recoiled back as if slapped and shank away into a corner. After a second a guilty look moved across the boy's face and he sighed. "Sorry, I shouldn't have lash out at you like that." He said before using a ladle to take out some of the food and put it into a bowl. He held it out towards Annabeth along with a spoon and a piece of bread. "Here. I know it isn't that good, but all I've got is canned foods. It will fill you up more than snack bars though. You should let it cool for a second before eating though."

Annabeth moved forward slowly at took the bowl, starting on the bread as she waited for the rest of the food to cool.

"I'm Danny Fenton. You mom asked me... alright she ordered me to keep you safe until you reached a safe zone. Some place called Camp Half Blood, that is over in New York." Danny said, his voice more gentle than before. He reached out a hand an patted her on the head. "So eat up, get some sleep and tomorrow morning well start heading back towards the nearest town so we can get moving. Alright?"

"O...Okay." Annabeth said, looking up at him with her big grey eyes. She couldn't believe it. Her mother had sent someone to rescue her and she was finally going to be taken to were she belonged. The day was finally looking up.

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 **As some of you have already guessed, Danny isn't exactly doing this of his own free will. So he has bitter feelings towards Athena for forcing him to leave his home in order to go questing for her.**

 **All of the creatures I have mentioned are in Greek mythology, though I don't know the exact names of them.**

 **Danny now has the Shield of Achilles. Though that is all the equipment he has right now.**


	4. Chapter 2: Healthy Paranoia

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

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They had been walking for seven hours, taking breaks when needed, but Annabeth's feet hurt. Blisters were starting to form on her feet, though she wasn't about to complain. She was too scared that if she made too much of a fuss that Danny would just walk out on her. He seemed grumpy and he had no respect for the gods, but he was strong and he was her only chance of getting to her to this 'Camp Half Blood' in one piece.

Besides, he was the one carrying two duffle bags and a backpack full of supplies for their trip.

He walked in relative silence, and when he did talk, it was more above politics and TV rather than anything related to what was going on. But after all that time walking, they finally came across some houses on the outskirts of a town.

"Alright. First we are going to take a bus to the central bus station here, there we can get a town map and find out how to get to a train that will take us east." Danny said, glancing down at the girl who nodded. She didn't have any objection to it. So they kept walking, looking for a bus stop. "Now that we are in a town I am going to have to explain to you the rules."

Annabeth blinked. "What rules?" She asked confused. Danny didn't strike her as the rules kind of guy.

"The rules you have to follow if you don't want to become victim to a monster." Danny said looking around them as they walked, as if expecting a monster to jump out at any moment. "Rule number one: Don't take free handouts from anyone. So many monsters will try to sucker you into eating something that will have a magical effect on you the moment it is in your stomach. Ate one wrong thing and you are as good as dead. Rule number two: Don't look anyone in the eyes. The number of bad things that could happen with that are more than I care to count. Rule number three: Don't touch any stream or pond. If you do, the water monsters will know exactly who and where you are. Rule number four: Stay away from underground passages. Same deal as rule number three, only with earth monsters..."

Annabeth went slack jawed as she listened to him listing off all the things that would land her dead. It was ridiculous. Surely he was mistaken. She had played in a stream before back home, and she had gone on a subway, and nothing bad every happened. He acted as if everyone they passed on the street would probably be a monster. Was he simply that paranoid?

After walking a few blocks they found a bus stop sign. Annabeth had to glare at it for a moment, trying to piece together the letters before she finally got what it was saying; Oakville, Route 23.

As they sat down on the bench Danny glanced over at her. "Your mother entrusted me with the job of getting you to your destination in one piece. I intend to do that, so don't do anything that would put yourself in danger." He said, seeming serious.

"I don't think we are in that much danger. You're overreacting." Annabeth mumbled weakly. Danny didn't react, he just turned his head away from her and stared at a corner store nearby.

Annabeth followed his gaze to it. She wondered if he was considering getting something from there. He seemed to have plenty of food in the duffle bags he carried around, maybe he had to go to the bathroom.

The automatic doors opened and someone walked out. A middle aged African-American woman with long braided hair. She was wearing a long deep purple dress and was walking towards the bus stop. She was carrying some bags of food she had bought at the store and was sort of waddled towards them on unsure legs. It took a moment for Annabeth to notice why.

Just underneath the line of her dress, she could see prosthetic legs. The woman must have been injured in a horrible accident and injured her legs.

Before the woman was even half way to them, a biker came around a corner to fast and spooked her, causing her to lose her balance and fall, the contains of her bags spilling out on the ground. But the biker didn't stop, he just kept going, leaving the poor woman to pull herself up by herself.

Annabeth tried to jump down to go and help the woman, but Danny held her back. "Don't." He said simply.

Annabeth looked up at him in shock. He couldn't mean that they should just ignore the poor woman. Was he seriously so afraid of monsters that he couldn't help a cripple pick up her shopping? The woman was back on her prosthetic feet and was struggling to pick up her dropped goods.

"Let me go." Annabeth snapped before pulling her arm out of Danny's grip. The boy just watching as she ran off towards the woman shaking his head.

"Lets get this over with." He finally said, pushing himself up.

"Ms. do you need some help?" Annabeth said politely as she started to pick up some boxes of dried fruit off the ground to try to help the woman.

"Why thank you dear." The woman said, her rhythmic voice tickling Annabeth's ears. The little girl looked up at her to try to find the bag when she ended up looking into the woman's eyes. Golden orbs that seemed to have a faded mist swirling around them. Annabeth felt limp as she watched the light dancing in those eyes. "You are just the sweetest little thing. I could just eat your right up." The woman smiled, revealing a mouth that only had four every sharp teeth.

Annabeth's eyes widened, but she was still unable to move as the woman started down on her. Danny's shield swung over Annabeth's head and ripped off the woman's head in just one hit, the body exploding into golden dust. Annabeth felt herself freed from the hypnosis and she fell to the ground before pushing herself away from the spot where the woman had just been.

"Don't worry. It was just a blood sucker. Wouldn't have killed you even if I hadn't put a stop to it. Would have just drank a bit of your blood, leaving you weak for a while." Danny said as his shield shrank back down into the black glove. Bending over he picked up a package of chocolate donuts that had been in the bag thats spilled onto the floor. "Eat these. The sugar will help you recover from your fright."

Annabeth took the package and nodded, promising herself that she would do whatever Danny send from then on. "What was that thing?" She asked worried.

"Don't really know the proper name. I just call them the blood sucking woman." Danny said with a shrug. "I've ran into them a few times in the past. The things that always give them away are those prosthetic legs. I was bitten by one of them once. So you aren't the first one to fall for it. Just be more careful from now on." The bus came up to the stop and the two kids got on, quickly paying the fee before going to sit in the back of the bus, underneath an emergency exit. "Don't worry, once we get into a more populated area, the number of monsters will decrease. The things find it harder to identify us when we are surrounded by the smell of normal humans."

Annabeth's head lowered. "I can't believe there are so many things I don't know." She said sadly looking down at her dagger. "Children of Athena are supposed to be wise. But I have been anything but wise."

Danny sat there for a few seconds watching her with an annoyed look on his face before sighing and placing a hand on her head, ruffling her blond hair. "Wisdom has to come from prior experience. You're still young. As you experience more and more, you will get wiser. Like you won't make the mistake of looking into the eyes of a woman with prosthetics again." Danny said. "You lived surrounded by your mother's protection to a certain degree, so you only had to deal with small fry monsters that were too small for her defenses to register. It's only natural that you are unprepared. But I promise you that I will keep you safe. So cheer up."

Annabeth looked up at him before nodding and eating one of the donuts. Danny leaned back towards the window and looked up at the pacing street signs. After a few more stops, Annabeth finally asked the question that had been on her mind since she had first woke up in the cave after Danny had saved her. "Danny. How do you know my mother?"

Danny's thoughtful look went sour. "I met her two days ago, and she told me to protect you. That's pretty much all of the story I know for sure." Danny said. Annabeth frowned in confusion. If Danny didn't like her mother, then why was he helping her? Why would her mother trust her to him in the first place? And the way Danny had said it, 'that's pretty much all of the story I know for sure'. It implied that there was more, but that Danny wasn't sure of it himself. "She kept going on about how I had sworn an oath of loyalty to her a long time ago, and how she was calling me to fulfill it. Though I had never seen her before in my life. Not that it matters, I would have been forced to eat dirt if she told me to." Danny stopped his angry rant and looked over at Annabeth's shocked face. He gave her a sad smile. "Sorry, I went too far with that. You don't need to worry. I'm not being made to do anything I don't want to do." He said, though Annabeth thought that he might be lying.

Her mother had forced Danny to protect her? It only made the girl more confused. Though she thought better than to press him further when he already seemed angry. Though she did make one more mental note of things to never do if you want to survive.

Never swear loyalty to anyone.

* * *

 **I'm going to contrive a way for him and Annabeth to meet up with Thalia, Grover and that other guy whose name I forget. (Luke or something.) Though the post meeting won't go smoothly since Danny would view Thalia, Grover and Luke more as liabilities than assets. More Demigods means more monsters, and with Thalia being the daughter of Zeus, Danny would want her gone.**

* * *

 **GirlFish: It's been a while since I heard from you. Anyways, the story you are thinking about involving Medusa once being a beautiful woman was actual a Roman story, not a Greek story and is from over a thousand years after the original stories about the Gorgon sisters. They were just the daughters of gods that turned out to be more monstrous, kind of like the Fates.**

 **I will not use the established canon of the legends that is in Percy Jackson, because I just don't feel like it.**


	5. Chapter 3: Hitch a Ride

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

By the time they found their way to the train station, the sun was already setting in the west. It had been a second long day for Annabeth, and she felt like she wouldn't be able to stand very much longer.

The bus had been fairly crowded, making Annabeth nervous, but Danny assured her that monsters tended to stay away from crowds of humans, saying they didn't like the smell of them. Even so, she was still staring hard at every person they came across, and avoiding eye contact. Something that Danny approved of greatly.

As everyone filled off the bus to start walking towards the train station, Annabeth was surprised when Danny turned the other way from the rest of them. She looked towards where the group was going before turning back and running after Danny. "Danny, where are you going? The train's check in station is the other way." She said as she struggled to keep up.

"Yeah, I know. But we are going to be hitching a ride in cargo rather than sitting in commercial." Danny said, pointing to a loading station a little ways off where crates were being loaded into cargo trollies.

"That doesn't seem very safe." The little girl said nervously.

"If we get caught we will have to fight our way out against human policemen." Danny admitted. "But since it will be impossible for people to get in or out of the tram once we get going, it will mean it will be a safe place for us to sleep. If we were on the passenger train then we would have to sleep with one eye open."

Annabeth blinked before her eyes widened. "You mean there are going to be monsters on the passenger train!"

"Maybe, but a maybe would be too much for us to risk deep sleeping with." Danny said, they reached a chain link fence. Danny reached up with his right hand, grabbing onto the metal. The green fire spread across and area of the fence as large as Danny was tall and the metal started to dissolve.

Annabeth watched the fire, mesmerized by the flickering light. "How do you do that?" She asked quietly.

Danny looked down at her and gave a sad smile. "I honestly have no idea. I just do it." He said before stepping through the hole. "I'm not entirely sure what 'it' even is."

"Wait, you use that fire all the time, and you don't even know how you do it!?" Annabeth said incredulously. "How is that even possible!?"

Danny chuckled a little. "What about your eyes? They are a part of you, you can feel them, you can use them, you can control them. Do you know how exactly your eyes work?"

Annabeth was quiet as she through about what Danny had just said, following towards the loading area as the sun finished setting. They hid in some shadows beside the main storage building as they looked out over the train yard. "Alright now comes for the hard part..." Danny said looking around. "Which one do you think is going east?"

Annabeth blinked. "You... you don't know?"

Danny gave her a grin. "I rarely do. I'm a very 'leap before you look' kind of guy."

Annabeth swallowed, wondering, not for the first time, who exactly her mother had left her with. But as Danny was mumbling 'eeny meeny miny moe', Annabeth saw a small pale white owl fly down and land on an open trolly. "Danny, look." She said, pulling on his sleeve and pointing to the owl. "I think my mom is trying to show us where to go."

Danny stopped and looked at the owl. "Well, its better than my plan. Lets go." He said. Annabeth squeaked as he picked her up before looking around to make sure no one was looking. She could feel a large amount of something coming out of Danny, covering them in a pale white light. The mist gathering around them in order to hide the supernatural force from mortal eyes.

Danny walked slowly out, straight past the workers and into the open cargo trolly. Annabeth was shocked as they moved by so close to one of the workers that she could have put out a hand and touched him.

Danny hopped up into the trolly and hide them in a corner behind some crates before letting the strange aura that had hid them away fade. It was only a few minutes later that the door closed and then they could feel the entire thing slowly starting to move.

It was only once they had started to build up speed that they finally started to talk again and dared to search around the box that they had just climbed into.

"I don't believe this." Danny said as he opened one of the crates to see what was inside out of curiosity. "Foam mattresses. Looks like your mom really is looking out for you."

Before Annabeth could question him about the ethics of using these when they didn't belong to them, Danny had already pulled off the packaging for one of them and was letting it expand in the air as he pulled a blanket out of one of his duffle bags and a pillow.

"Hope you don't mind sharing, princess, because I only had enough room for one blanket." Danny said as he was making the bed.

Annabeth blushed a deep red. "What? But a boy and a girl can't share a bed. We aren't even related." Annabeth objected, squirming a bit.

Danny rolled his eyes. "No offense princess, but you are only seven years old. I'm not exactly going to do anything indecent. The simple fact is, we both need our sleep and this will probably be the best chance we will have for it in a while." Danny said looking out into space. "Besides, your mother has already threatened me pretty heavily if I let anything bad happen to you."

Annabeth blinked again. "She... she did?"

"Yeah, I believe her exact words were, 'if anything happens to her, than I will literally make you my bitch'. I'm not actually sure if she can transform me into a dog just like that. Usually monsters have to trick us into eating there magic rather than just snapping their fingers like with normal humans, but a goddess is unexplored territory for me." Danny said, rather calm considering he was talking about his own eternal damnation if he failed his job.

Annabeth looked down a little guiltily. Her mother was threatening her protector into doing his job. It felt wrong. Sure Danny had a bit of an attitude, but he had been nice enough to her, considering how he could have treated her. He was being a slave driver, he let her choose the pace when they had been walking, he had been the one to care all their equipment, he had even cooked for her. Annabeth had read all the legends about her mother, and she had always tried to convince herself that the people she cursed had always deserved it. But would Danny really deserve to be cursed if he failed?

"Hey now, don't make that face." Danny said, noticing her brooding on the subject. "Trust me, I won't fail to protect you, so her threat is pointless. She probably only made it because I kept mouthing off. I had honestly not believed she was a goddess at first. After all, I never even knew that anything other than the monsters existed before she showed up and sent me on this quest of hers."

"You didn't know the gods existed?" Annabeth asked, surprised. Danny had seemed so knowledgeable about monsters, so how could he not know anything about gods.

"Nope. I'm not a demigod like you are. I'm the son of two normal humans. I came into my power completely by mistake, my family doesn't even know about any of this." Danny said as he dug some snacks out of one of his bags and handed them to the little girl. "Eat up, then we will get some sleep. We'll be in here for a few hours at the least."

Annabeth took the food, still in shock for the information she had just been given. Danny wasn't a demigod. He born to mortals.

* * *

After her first objection, Annabeth accepted that they both needed their sleep and was willing to share the bed and blankets. She even huddled up close to Danny for warm as she slept, falling just short of wrapping her arms around him.

Annabeth was so tired, that she would sleep for hours, and nothing was going to wake her. But even though Danny had said that they would be safe in the closed compartment, that didn't mean he himself slept peacefully. He still worried. Worried about the challenges ahead. Worried about where the train they were on was actually going. Worried about his home and family.

So he was only half asleep when it happened. A shifting in the air. A sort of smell of light and the large hard road, if that makes sense.

Danny's eyes snapped open and he was wide awake. "Who's there?" He said as his shield expanded and he positioned himself between whatever had just appeared and his charge. His eyes glowed green as he looked into the darkness that surrounded them and found a grown man sitting on one of the crates, looking down at him with a half grin.

"No need to be startled, I was simply coming to see how had hid away on this train. After all, I am the patron god of travels and thieves, so when a demigod hitches a ride, it is my duty to now. And when they are with someone like you, I can't say I don't get a bit more interested." The man said in a friendly voice. Danny inwardly cursed, another god, Hermes. "It has been a long time Achilles. We all assumed that you would never be coming back. I guess if you are guarding her daughter, that mean Athena knows of your return."

"I am not Achilles." Danny said angrily. "That isn't my name. So stop calling me it."

Hermes laughed before jumping off of the crate and walking towards him. "You aren't Achilles? Strange, considering I have never known any other mortal who holds the power of the River Styx so close to them." Danny's eyes didn't leave the god as he approached, keeping an eye on his shoulders in order to gag his movements and keep himself from making eye contact. You never make eye contact. "Though I guess you are right. You aren't Achilles, so who exactly are you?"

"Danny Fenton." Danny didn't see a need to lie about it, or hide it. He wasn't even sure if it would have worked to try. "If you have satisfied your curiosity, would you mind leaving so I can get back to sleep?"

Hermes chuckled as he stopped right next to Danny and Annabeth's make shift bed. "I suppose you do have a long trip ahead of you, and with such an adorable little girl too..." Hermes was bending over to pat Annabeth's head, but Danny's hand grabbed the god's wrist, stopping him from touching the girl. Hermes looked over into Danny's angry eyes with amusement. "I see you take your job seriously, just like a good pet." He said, making Danny even angrier, but the god did pull his hand away. "Good luck on your travels, Danny boy. Just remember not to be this rude to any other gods who's eye you catch. I'm fairly mellow and enjoy a mortal with a bit of pride and backbone, but my relatives don't share my good humor. So just be careful, or at least, more careful that Achilles was."

"The gods leave me alone, I'll leave them alone." Danny said simply.

"That's one way of looking at it, but I don't think you will be able to keep up that stance for much longer." Hermes said, as if he knew something that Danny didn't. "By the way, this train is heading for Florida. You aimed a bit too far south and you will have to travel north once you get off."

Danny's mouth twitched. Florida was only slightly closer to New York than they were originally, but at least they won't have to cross any mountain ranges now, and Florida probably has a better interstate bus system they can work with. "Thanks for the info." Danny said with a nod.

"Don't mention it. Just keep the kids safe, would you." Hermes said with a wave before disappearing.

Once he was gone Danny felt more at ease, his shield disappearing and he lay back down on the bed. It would be a few moments before he realized that Hermes had said 'kids'.


	6. Chapter 4: Forgotten

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

"This is insane." Danny growled as the two runners were made to leave yet another bus stop in order to dodge a group of monsters that had spotted them. Since they had gotten off the train, Danny had to take down three monsters that had disguised themselves as normal animals to the normal human eye, and even Annabeth was having no trouble spotting some of the armies of other mystic beings that were moving around the area. The way they all seemed to shift their bodies towards the two and the strange words they used.

"Maybe we should just try to walk north to a different town before trying for any form of transportation." Annabeth suggested as she watched a couple moving stiffly around to face them. If she concentrated, she could see past the mist that surrounded them and to the bark that was probably the nature of their real skin.

"You might be right, but I still don't understand why all these monsters are here in the first place. The sure number of them is unnatural." Danny said with a nod. He didn't want to have to walk to the next town. That would add another two days to their already too long for his liking trip. But there was nothing that he could do in this town. He took the girl's hand and started moving north. "We'll need to stop by a department store and pick up some extra supplies before we leave town. I don't know when it will be safe to get more food, so we should stock up."

"Can't we just go to one of these convenience stores?" Annabeth asked, glancing to a gas station to their right. The always open sign blinking in the window. Then she saw the man standing behind the desk staring at them through the open door. "You're kidding me?"

"That's right. Convenience stores are sometimes ran by monsters. Same goes for fast food joints, like the Nasty Burger or McDonald's." Danny said as they kept walking. "Don't worry though. Those are just common magic users. If you don't eat their food they can't really do anything to you."

"They're really everywhere, aren't they." Annabeth said sadly.

"They really are." Danny nodded in agreement. "Even more than usual."

* * *

It took them the remainder of the day to find a store and get out of the city. Danny had used the money Athena had given him at the beginning of his quest to buy some more food supplies and to get a sleeping bag and a change of clothes for Annabeth.

The two of them had to fight off monsters twice after leaving the city limits, Annabeth making use of that knife of hers when a miniature winged serpent managed to snake its way past Danny while he was dealing with a boar the size of a small truck.

"You alright?" Danny asked the girl as the snake disappeared in a flash of gold dust.

Annabeth nodded. "I'm pretty used to dealing with monsters as small as that one." She admitted. The snake had only been two feet long. Not exactly the mammoth snakes that were sent to kill Hercules as a baby.

Danny turned towards the wind and took a deep breath. "I don't think there are any more too close by. We should probably find a place to camp out for the night." He said, turning his head around to survey the surrounding area. "It's best to have a room with limited entrances and exits. Off the ground floor is preferable, since stairs aren't exactly designed for monsters to use."

Annabeth looked around as well, spotting an old factory in the distance. "We could probably stay there. It looks abandoned enough." Annabeth said, pointing to the building.

Danny followed her gaze and nodded. "Yeah, that should work. Lets go." He said, adjusting the duffle bags on his shoulders before starting to walk along.

Annabeth watched him with a certain amount of fascination. He was now carrying three duffle bags and a backpack to make room for the new things they bought. He must have been carrying more than his entire body weight in food and other supplies, but he marched around with it like it was no big deal at all. She wondered how strong he was.

The building had been locked, requiring Danny to use more of his power again to burn a hole in the door to let them in. The green flames spread to an area as wide as his palm, but then stopped, as if there was nothing to fuel them into going further, even though the door was made of wood. Danny had complete control over the fire.

Walking into the building they found a set of stairs that lead up to a control room for the equipment. The room smelled pretty bad, and the windows were blow out, probably by some kind of tropical storm in the past. But Annabeth noticed an approving look on Danny's face. "Yeah, this is probably an ideal spot." He said as he dropped the bags to the floor. "You go head and get some sleep. I'm going to secure the area a bit more before calling it a night myself." Danny said as he pulled out the girls brand new sleeping bag and laid it out for her.

"You are going to sleep, aren't you? You won't stay up playing look out all night?"Annabeth asked him seriously.

Danny chuckled at her comment. "Yeah, believe it or not, I need sleep to. Just a little less of it." He said reached out and ruffled her hair before heading to the door. "Get some sleep. We've got a long road ahead of us."

After he left and started to looking around their chosen shelter, he pushed a hand into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He looked down at it with sad eyes. It was turned off, he wasn't sure how, but monsters seemed to be able to track phone calls. Or maybe he really was as paranoid as everyone said he was.

It had been three days since he left home without a word to his family. When Athena made him leave his life in order to act as Annabeth's personal bodyguard. His parents were probably worried sick, and he had no idea what Jazz would think. "Couldn't you have picked someone else." Danny mumbled angrily as he put the phone back in his pocket.

He couldn't find it in him to blame Annabeth. She was just a little girl who had a hard time of it. So regardless how he felt about the ordeal, he would do his best to keep her safe and as happy as he could. That said, he wouldn't forgive Athena for doing this to him. For ruining his already unstable life.

* * *

Dark green flames circled the edge of a clearing that had been burned clean, the heat so strong as to turn the stone into a blackened glass sheet. The flames shone with such intensity, that the moon hanging in the night sky seemed to be burned with emerald glow.

Kneeling in the center of all that chaos was what looked like a human boy, a young man of no more than seventeen years who had yet to grow a single hair upon his child. His hair was a blood red as were the tears coming from his ruby eyes as he screamed to the heavens in a blind rage. The green fire nearly eclipsing his body from view as it poured out from underneath his skin.

Throughout the trees lining the smoldering circle of destruction were several dozen woman of varying age holding bows. Some sported burns from being too close to the source of the flames, but they had all somehow managed to survive their first confrontation with the beast.

"Damn you Thetis, what kind of monster has thou spawn." Artemis cursed as she surveyed the damage to her hunters. This creature had already laid to waste two whole forests and sunk an entire island.

"My Lady, our arrows cannot reach the beast through those flames. What should we do?" One of the girl's asked their goddess, with a respectful tilt of the head.

"Take the others and withdraw. It was a mistake to risk you all in this hunt. I should have taken the Oracles words more seriously." Artemis said with a growl, not wanting to see any more of her hunters hurt.

"My Lady, we cannot leave your side!" The hunter objected. But Artemis was not in the mood for such things as pointless loyalty that would sever no purpose other than getting the girls in an early grave.

"That was an order!" The goddess shouted, her voice booming with power. The hunter recoiled and nodded before lifting a trumpet to her lips to sound the retreat. Artemis turned back to the creature in the center of the pit. "'Thetis's child shall far surpass his father's strength.' I never imagined it would be like this." Artemis said as the young man let out another pained roar that shook the air. "I suppose we must just be glad that his father is only a mortal." She whispered as she fitted an arrow to her bow. She was the Goddess of the Hunt, and this monster needed to be secured, before it brought destruction upon the entire world.


	7. Chapter 5: New Party Members

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Danny's eyes snapped open in the night, waking him from his odd dream. Something in the air didn't feel right. He didn't know how to describe it. A charge maybe? No, more like the humidity in the air that signaled a coming storm. Something that penetrated deep into the animal instincts and told all nearby creatures to seek shelter until the danger had passed.

The world had gone nearly silent. Even the insects who's endless mating calls usual populated the hot nights had seemed to vanish. The silence seemed to press down on him making him even more uncertain, until something finally cut through it. Several low howls, far off, but coming closer. Danny strained his senses and took in a deep breath, the smell of smoldering iron and exhaust filling his nose. Something was nearby.

Then he felt it, a trimmer moving through the Earth. The shock waves were enough to steer Annabeth from her sleep. "What's that?" The seven year old girl asked as she sat up in her sleeping bag and pushed some blond hair out of her face.

"Don't now." Danny mumbled, keeping his eyes closed as he listened to the approaching sounds. "Monsters, a few of them. And they are hunting something. Though I don't think it is us." Danny got up. "Stay hidden, I'm going to check it out." He said as he moved to one of the blown out windows and started to climb up to the roof top of the abandoned factory.

Once outside, Danny took a deep breath. The scent was getting stronger. But there was something else mixed in with the smell of monsters.

Looking down, Danny had a good view of the area around him, the world being pulled into sharp focus even in the darkness of night. So it was easy for him to see the pack of car sized dogs chasing after the two children down the street as they made their way towards Danny and Annabeth's hiding spot.

Unfortunately for the kids down on the ground, they were heading for a different door than the one Danny had opened, meaning they were locked out. So after trying the door to find that it wouldn't open, the two turned to face their pursuers.

They were a boy and a girl, each holding a spear typed in bronze and wearing improvised leather armor. The girl was the younger of the two, probably around twelve years old, with black hair and sky blue eyes that caught the limited light coming from the street lamps as she glared at the half dozen monster dogs from behind a rather terrifying looking bronze shield with the face of a monstrous woman with snakes for hair gilded onto it, so real looking that it gave the charging monsters second thoughts about attacking.

The boy, though older and taller, didn't have his partner's presence on the field. He looked to be fourteen, with straight blond hair, in the dim light Danny couldn't make out the boy's eyes like with the girl's, but he thought they looked bluish. His pretty boy looks were diminished by the ugly wooden shield he held up as he prepared for the monsters to come at them.

"Don't think you've got us, you whiney mutts!" The girl shouted as sparks of electricity jumped from the end of her spear, the dogs jumped back from the lightning attack, and growled at the girl's challenge. Danny himself though was surprised to see the electricity flying through the air. The girl was a daughter of Zeus. This explained a lot.

For a few seconds, it looked like they would be at a stand off, the children unable to approach the beasts without losing the wall to their backs, and the monsters unable to attack the children because of the lightning.

That is, until the tree line trembled and a lower blast of heated air whistled through the air. A massive animatronic giant pushed through the tree, crushing them into splinters as it pushed through them, moving towards the cornered children. It's bright red mechanical eyes holding the children in its sights as it slowly moved closer, the earth getting compressed into giant foot prints as it moved ever closer. It's bronze body shining in the light of the street lamps, making it seem even bigger than its thirty feet.

With the added backing of the giant behind them, the monster dogs became more aggressive, rushing forward towards the children. The girl managed to strike one of them through the throat before being forced to guard against a second's charge with her shield which throw her off balance as its massive body pressed down against her.

She staggered, but before she could get her footing back, the metal giant's arm swept down and grabbed her lifting her pull off the ground as it squeezed down on her. She gave a scream of pain as her spear snapped and her arms were pressed into her ribs. Only the shield stopping the giant from fully closing its hand was saving the girl's life at the moment.

"Thalia!" The boy shouted in panic, though he couldn't help her. He was too busy holding off the hounds that were after his own throat.

Danny jumped into action, leaping off the roof and coming down on the giant's arm, his shield appearing on his right arm as he slashed downwards with its glowing green edge, cutting through the metal tenants that held the giant's wrist closed.

As Danny felt to the ground below, he landed with a heavy thud that sent a shiver up his spine, but he was still undamaged by the forty foot fall, and as the giant's hand loosened and the girl fell screaming from its grip, Danny got underneath her and caught the girl before she hit the ground. The girl looked around her, as if in a daze, trying to figure out what had stop her fall.

But Danny was still in high alert, as he spun around to smash his shield into an attacking dog, the girl still in his arms. He quickly jumped back to the locked door and slashed through the handle with his glowing shield edge so that the door opened.

Turning to the boy, who looked shocked at Danny's sudden appearance, Danny shoved the girl into his arms. "Get inside and wait for me there. Touch the girl up stairs and you die." He said quickly before grabbing the boy's shoulder and pushing him into the factory before slamming the damaged door behind him.

Turning back to the confused monsters Danny let out a frustrated growl, his eyes burning green as he glared at them. "Lets get this over with."

The hounds were the first to come forward, rushing towards Danny with their teeth bared. It was simple enough for him to slice the first one's head clean in half as it charge him with a upward swing of his shield, then he dodged to the right to avoid the other two, bringing him closer to the remains of the girl's spear which he grabbed in his left hand. Covering the spear head up with his green fire, he through it at a second wolf, burning through the beast's side and reducing it to a pile of gold dust in an instant. The last beast went down a second later as the giant accidently stepped on it as it moved towards Danny, swinging its still whole hand in a downward motion, the palm held out as if it was trying to swot a fly. Danny rolled to the side in order to avoid the hit. The strike from the giant left a massive hand print where Danny had just been, if such an attack had actually hit, Danny would be in serious trouble.

But that didn't stop him. He jumped up onto the outstretched arm and started climbing up it towards the metal monster's head, swinging around the arm in order to dodge the swipes the creature made with its damaged hand. Once he had climbed to the top, Danny covered the edge of his shield with the destructive energy again and slashed at the giant's metal head, leaving a long breech on the side that spat out gold dust from a sort of pipe that was were a normal vein would be.

But the hit didn't stop the giant. It spun around so that Danny flew off of its shoulder, slamming into the wall of the building before falling to the ground with a hit that would break normal bones and kill a man. But Danny just pushed himself back up, shaking the soreness out of his body as he got ready for the monster's next attack.

Though it seemed his last strike wasn't without effect. The light in the giant's eyes was gone and its swings were blind and unfocused. Though that might had made it even more dangerous to Danny's cause as one of the poorly aimed hits glanced off the side of the building, cracking the walls and making the factory tremble. The giant seemed to have felt the impact and turned towards the building to use its full force on it.

"Oh no you don't!" Danny shouted as he ran forward, aiming for the giant's leg. Hit cut through its heel on its back leg, causing it to lose balance and fall backwards onto its back. Though the metal beast continued to move.

Danny jumped up onto its chest and placed a hand down on the metal plate. He then concentrated as much of the emerald fire as he could into that one spot, metaling a hole through the bronze armor plating that protested the metal giants heart. Then, spotting the engine that kept the monster going, Danny aimed and shot into the chest cavity, blasting the thing with a shot of his green fire.

The giant stopped moving and then exploded into a large cloud of golden dust which quickly vanished, leaving nothing but a couple of pieces of bronze pipe in its place.

Danny sighed as he stood up, rubbing his shoulders from the hit against the building. "Damn that hurt." He mumbled as he turned to go inside the building.

As he closed the door behind him, he turned to see the boy checking over his female accomplice's injures, concern more clear on his face than the pain was on the girl's. "So you two are the reason why the entire town was swarming with monsters. A daughter of Zeus. You must be a real treat to them." Danny said, failing to keep his frustration out of his voice.

The boy grabbed his spear and turned towards Danny, trying to position himself between Danny and the girl. "Who are you? Why did you help us?"

"Why is it that every time I help people they always point a weapon at me?" Danny said sarcastically. "My name is Danny, and I helped you because you brought your problem to my doorstep."

"Sorry. Didn't realize anyone was living here. Should have known better, this place being such prime real-estate." The girl said, swallowing on her pain, though Danny could see her fingers reaching for her leg and flinching away.

Danny turned his head to the staircase that led up to where Annabeth was still hiding. "Princess! We got an injured person down here! Grab my first aid kit, would you!?" Danny shouted, startling the two new comings.

"Alright!" Annabeth's childish voice shouted back. A few seconds later Annabeth appeared at the top of the stairs, carrying Danny's white box that held all of his bandages and antibiotics. She was dressed again in the dress they had gotten from killing Arachne, making her really look like a princess of sorts. She paused as she saw the two new comers, only approaching when Danny gave her a nodded. "Who are they?" She asked cautiously.

"By the looks of it, demigods." Danny said as he took the box from Annabeth and looked to the injured girl. Annabeth looked at the two with wide eyes after hearing that. "You want me to take a look at your injures, or should I hand this stuff over to your boyfriend?"

The girl glared at him before turning to the boy. "Luke, can you take it?" She asked him. The boy nodded and walked forward, taking the box from Danny before returning to the girl's side.

But when they finally opened the box their faces sank. "Where is the nectar and ambrosia?" The boy said with a disheartened voice.

"The what?" Danny said confused.

"The food of the gods that can heal injures. Don't you have any?" The girl said angrily, though her anger caused her to move to much and she ended up flinching from the pain in her leg.

"Sorry, I only have mortal stuff food and medicine." Danny said with a sigh. "If you want your magic medicine stuff, then you will have to get some yourself, because I don't have any."

"How am I supposed to treat a broke leg without any nectar or ambrosia?" The boy asked.

"You can make a splint?" Annabeth suggested. "Just use two pieces of wood held together with bandages to help keep the leg straight and keep pressure on it." The boy blinked in confusion at hearing something like that from a seven year old girl before he nodded and started to work. Annabeth watched with fascination, giving small pointers to the boy as needed.

Meanwhile, Danny was still on guard, his ears peeled for any sound that might signal a monster approaching. He didn't like the idea of these two being there, but he couldn't exactly throw them out.

After the splint was made the two new kids turned to them again. "Thanks for the save I guess." The girl said grudgingly. "Though I still don't know who you two are, or why you are here."

"Ditto." Danny said simply. The girl glared at him, though Annabeth felt like being friendlier than Danny.

"I'm Annabeth Chase. I'm a daughter of Athena, and Danny is my friend and bodyguard. It's nice to meet you." Annabeth said with a smile.

"Bodyguard?" The boy said, as if surprised.

"Athena ordered me to keep her daughter safe." Danny said with a shrug. "So are you two ever going to introduce yourselves? Or should I just make nicknames for you? Like shocky and blondy."

"My name is Thalia." The girl said, making a point of not looking at Danny. "I'm a daughter of Zeus."

"I'm Luke, and Hermes is my father." The boy said, giving Annabeth a polite nodded before looking at Danny. "Thank you again for your help. We don't know why, but in the last week, there have been more and more monsters attacking us. We've been out here on our own for nearly a two years, but it has never been like this before. We haven't even been able to hunt or get more supplies because of their constant attacks."

"So the monsters in town really were after the two of you." Danny said looking at the two kids. They were only slightly younger than he was, so they didn't cause the same protective instinct as Annabeth did. "Right now I'm taking the princess here to a safe haven in New York." Danny said, seeing a surprised look on Thalia and Luke's faces. They had never heard of it before. "You two can stay here with us for the night, and when we leave tomorrow we leave our extra supplies with you."

"What? Why can't we all go together?" Annabeth asked confused.

"I'm already stretching myself to do this much. My job is to keep you safe, and having them around would put you in even more danger. I can't allow that. Especially since that girl is already injured." Danny said looking at the upset face of Annabeth.

"That girl has a name." Thalia said angrily. "You think that I would just be dead weight?"

"I don't think. I know. As long as you two are with us, the number of monsters with be as great as it was today. We won't be able to secure transportation, meaning we will have to go north on foot, tracking across the entire country could take months." Danny said crossing his arms. "Even if you weren't injured, you'd just be dragging us down."

"Danny..." Annabeth pouted, looking up at him with sad eyes. "I really want us all to travel together. I know you are strong enough to protect everybody, and I'm sure we can figure something out to make it work. So please say we can all go together." She clasped her hands and pursed her lips.

Danny bit his own lip as he saw the face. True enough, he could keep them safe, and if the girl managed to get healed up then she might even be useful in a fight. The problem he had was that it would take forever for them to get across the coast without any sort of buses or trains. Danny looked around at them. The boy and girl now only had one spear between them, the one who he was fairly sure was the better fighter was injured, and monsters were tracking them. The two probably wouldn't survive long.

Danny sighed. "Any way you two could get a hand on your magic medicine? I don't think we can carry 'Thalia' all the way to New York." Danny said, emphasizing the girl's name.

"I've got a... safe house of sorts in the next town. We can pick up some there, as well as some more weapons." Luke said trying to keep his friend under control.

"Fine then, get some rest. We leave at first light." Danny said turning towards the stairs to go up to were they had set up camp. He paused at the top of them and turned to glare down at the two new comers. "As far as I care, you two are princess's luggage. Don't make me regret this."

"Gods, what is that guy's problem!?" Thalia shouted, her temple throbbing as she glared after Danny. "I've met monsters that are less hostile than he is!"

"Danny has a few social problems. But he's actually really nice." Annabeth said with a smile. "I look forward to traveling with you both." She said before running back up the stairs after Danny, leaving the two demigods to weight their very few options before Luke helped Thalia up the stairs after them.

"Luke, when this is all over. I'm sending that bastard to Hades."

* * *

 **Thalia and Luke meet Danny. Only Annabeth is happy.**


	8. Chapter 6: Hermes' Task

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

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"Danny... there are even more in this town than there were in the last one." Annabeth murmured, hugging herself close to Danny for protection as they walked down the street towards Luke's supposed safe house. Every eye on the street was staring at their small party and people whispered all around them. Though not for the reason Annabeth assumed.

"As much as I am usual one for blaming things on monsters, I'm afraid this time they are staring for... other reasons." He said, glancing back at Luke and Thalia, who were two steps behind them. They were still wearing their stupid improvised leather armor and Luke's wooden shield bumped steady at his side. Which would have been weird enough, even if it wasn't for the fact that they were using Danny's blanket to tie Thalia up on Luke's back to make it easier for the boy to carry his friend. Which was extremely out of place in the suburbs of the small city they were pacing through. "This is actually a tactic I never thought of before. Gather everyone's attention so that the monsters can't attack you with being spotted."

"Shut it, bleach-for-brains." Thalia grumbled as she shifted uncomfortably in her baby carrier. "Luke, how much longer until we get there."

"It's three blocks away." Luke said flatly, he didn't look to happy about that fact.

Danny spotted this. "You feeling said that you won't be carrying your damsel anymore, lover boy, or is there something we should now?"

Luke flushed slightly even as Thalia's hissed. "It's just... this safe house is actually my mother's house. My human mother's house. The home I ran away from." Luke said glumly.

"Why'd you run?" Annabeth asked nervously, thinking about her own situation back with her wicked step mother. Thalia just looked sadly at the boy's back.

Luke grunted. "I'd rather not talk about it, though I suppose you will all probably see it. My mother isn't well. Mentally I mean."

Danny winced. "I'm sorry to hear that." He said, sounding sincere for the first time since Thalia and Luke had met him. Danny had seen people who had seriously lost there minds and ended up in the loony-bin. His parents had taken him to see it before in an attempt to scare him straight before seeking professional help. Not that there was ever anything wrong with Danny. "Was the case... natural or..."

"A curse." Luke said, confirming the worst. "She's had it as long as I can remember. Even at the best of times she is unstable. But every once and a while she would have horrible fits. Eventually I couldn't take seeing it day after day and ran away to get away from it."

"Isn't there any way to break the curse?" Annabeth asked. "In the stories, some curses were broken in the end. Maybe there is something we can do to help her."

"I would have if I knew how." Luke said, a bit of frustration in his usually calm voice. "I prayed to my father everyday to do something to help her, but he never answered. None of the gods ever helped us." He stopped in front of an apartment complex. "This is the place." He mumbled, holding up a small ring of old keys, the metallic paint coming off of them, as if he had rubbed them between in fingers on far too many nights, thinking about the doors they fit.

He unlocked the front door to the apartment complex and the group filed in, finally getting away from prowling eyes. "She's up on the fourth..." Luke started, heading for the stairs, but Danny throw out his arm to stop him, the brown shield manifesting on his ring arm as a smell reached him.

"Show yourself!" Danny barked as he went down in a defensive stance in front of Annabeth, prepared for anything.

"No need to be so aggressive, kiddo." A familiar voice chimmed as someone walked around the corner of the stairs, holding a backpack slung over one shoulder. His lean face was charming and his blue eyes seemed sad as he looked down at them, but Danny finally recognized the man's feel. "I just thought I would save you kids an unpleasant meeting." The black haired man said, holding out the backpack.

"Hermes?" Danny tested. He hadn't managed to get a good look at the man when they were in the dark train compartment.

"What are you doing here?" Luke said with wide eyes, as if his father was the last thing he had expected to see on this earth.

"I already told you. You seeing May now would only cause both of you pain. Isn't that why you swore you would never come back? Because you know this." Hermes said, his voice more sad than anything else, though the words were a bitter pill for the son to swallow.

"You have no right to call my mother by her name." Luke said angrily. "You left us. You never did anything for us."

Hermes looked down. "You're right. I suppose I never could. Some father." He said before tossing them the backpack. "Your stuff is in there. I suggest you take care of the girl's injures rather than wasting your time with your useless old man."

Luke pulled the backpack open, checking to see that it did indeed have his weapons and the medicine he needed. Then his eyes shot back up. "You really don't want me to see her, do you?" Luke said in an accusing voice. "You're too good to help her, but you still come down here to stop me from even seeing my mother. Why, you never cared about anything I did before?"

"If you saw her now, it would trigger the vision again and she would see your future. That is what the curse does to her. That was why she was always in pain. Because of the terrible things in it." Hermes said as his face grew cold. "I tried to help, but sometimes we gods are not as powerful as we need to be. With our stature comes restrictions. Don't ever thing that I didn't help because I didn't want to. I loved you and May."

Luke blinked in shock. "You know... my future?" He said in surprise. "You know what it is? Tell me!" He shouted, sounding rather dispirit.

But Hermes just turned his head away. "I can't tell you that. I've already said too much."

Luke gritted his teeth. "Fine, I get it. Don't tell me." He said turning and walking out with Thalia still on his back, seeming too shocked to say anything.

Danny was about to follow them with Annabeth when Hermes stopped you. "No you, Danny-o. You stay here, I've got something I'd like to talk to you about." Hermes said, stopping Danny from leaving, though his eyes went to Annabeth as if wondering if he could get her to leave. "Maybe she could go out with the others."

"I'm not letting the princess away from my side." Danny said with finality.

"Fair enough I suppose." Hermes said with a sigh. He was silent for a few seconds, as if the messenger of the gods was weighing his words, trying to find their true value. Finally, when he did speak it wasn't in the style that most would think of when they that of the mighty Greek Gods. "Despite what most of my relatives up on the top of the world pretend, we really are limited in what we can do. There are laws that we can write into existence, and once written, they live us completely helpless. Doesn't help that most of us are so fickle with our powers."

Danny was having a hard time understanding what the god was saying, but it was easy enough to tell that Hermes wanted something from him.

"Why didn't you help Luke and his mother?" Annabeth said, earning a angry glare from the god, though Danny quickly moved between them. The moment passed and Hermes's eyes fell to the ground.

"I'm a lousy father, I get that, but never think for a second that I didn't try everything I could to cure Luke's mother. The curse came from Hades himself, we didn't even know it was there until it was too late. Hades can't remove his curse, Apollo can't cure it. There is nothing I can do." Hermes said still not looking at anything in particular. Though his eyes slowly moved towards Danny's. "But there might be something you can do."

Danny blinked. He had never done much more than killing. Curse's were outside of his knowledge. "How can I help with a curse?"

Hermes smile a bit at the comment. "Sounds like you need a history lesson. Have you ever heard of the birth of all the world's evils?"

"You mean Pandora's box?" Annabeth asked.

"No, not that story! Gods, no! Why does everyone think that we are some kind of psychopaths!? No!" Hermes shouted, shaking his head before sighing. "That story was based on the older story. One about events that predated even the Titans, back before the golden age ever even started."

"Long ago, there were two of the principle beings that were personification of fundamental parts of the universe; Nyx, the incarnation of the nature of darkness, and Chaos, the embodiment of... well chaos." Hermes started his story. "These two beings were infatuated with each other, though the universe as a whole feared them beyond anything else. For every time they produced a child, another evil was introduced into the world. Personifications of death, hunger, fear, pain, jealousy, hatred, disease, madness, curses, every evil you can imagine. But in the end they also had one other child, something that was impossible to explain from such a mirage."

"It has been called many things, the True Light, the Wave of Dreams, the Breath of the Gods, the Healing Embers, Hope, though we gods simply call it, Aether. And it is the power to destroy the other evils." Hermes said with a smile.

"So, you want us to find this Aether stuff?" Danny asked, wondering if he could get out of it.

"You already have it." Hermes said, further confusing Danny. "When oxygen condenses in an single area, along with something that can be burned, it creates mortal fire. Well, Aether is the same way, only rather than mortal fire, you get an immortal flame. One that burns green."

Annabeth gasped and looked to Danny with wide eyes. Danny raised his hands, letting the pale light come over them before they erupted into bright green flames that lashed out at the air, as if they wanted to be free to rip apart everything. "This fire doesn't heal. It can only destroy." Danny said, thinking the god was nuts.

"Maybe. But the fuel that powers the fire is what I want, not the fire itself. It could be enough to heal May." Hermes said his voice hopeful. "Kiddo, if you can remove May's curse, then I will make it worth your while."

Danny looked down at his own hands, wondering just how much control he had over this power he had never understood before. Could he us it to destroy a curse without complete reducing the woman's body to ashes?

"Danny?" Annabeth said, holding onto his sleeve and looking up to him with big eyes. He could see the encouragement in her eyes.

Taking a deep, Danny turned back to the messenger god. "I'll give it a shot. Don't blame me if this doesn't go well."

* * *

 **My boss came into my cubical today rubbing his knuckles and looking down at me with an overly friendly smile and said "Peter, you've got a lot of free time on your hands, right?"**

 **FUCK!**

 **Yeah I just had a project dumped on me that will probably take up all of my free time for the next two to eight months. So this is more or less a goodbye from regular updates.**


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